On many occasions, hotels, restaurants, convention centers, and other institutions often require that tables, temporary stages, elevated platforms, and area dividers include some type of drapery or skirting. This skirting is normally secured or coupled in some manner to the top of tables, platforms or drapery rods and hangs therefrom. The skirting ordinarily hangs from the surface of the table to a location adjacent the floor to create a pleasing decorative effect. Additionally, drapery systems are utilized for providing partitions to which signs and custom drapes are affixed in order to partition and divide areas between exhibitors at convention centers.
Various types of apparatus and techniques have been previously employed to secure or attach drapery and skirting. Such apparatus is described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,905,414; 4,153,097; 4,213,492; and 4,237,958. Other techniques commonly employed to secure a skirt to a table are to directly tack, staple or pin the skirting to the table or platform. This technique, however, results in damage to the drapery and the surface to which it is stapled. Further, such techniques are inconvenient and time consuming for applying, removing and interchanging the skirt. Furthermore, many platform stages or tables commonly employ metallic surfaces to which the drape cannot be stapled.
Prior skirting support systems which utilize clips to fasten the skirt to an edge of a table suffer from the disadvantage in that the clips must accommodate various thicknesses of table edges to which a drape may be attached. Furthermore, many tables utilize a downwardly extending flange around the periphery of a table which necessitates a customized clip for mounting a skirt to a table. Additional connector clips are required for attaching drapery to a cylindrical support rod which is used for partitions between exhibitors at convention centers. Therefore, a variety of drapery clips are required to be maintained in inventory to satisfy the needs of various users of drape and skirting systems.
Therefore, a need has arisen for a drapery clip to accommodate various thicknesses of table edges, tables having downwardly extending flanges, as well as for use with drapery rods.